Let’s start with the lengthy story of Oscar winning Apostate, Paul Haggis and his life in Scientology. It appears in The New Yorker and is yet another expose of Scientology that will leave you baffled. When science fiction becomes science religion would be a good title for it.
Next we have Neil Strauss’ humorous piece, God [...]
Tags:apostate·Billy Ray Cyrus·Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law·Christopher Beam·David Miscaviage·God at the Grammys·Miley Cyrus·Mormons·Neil Strauss·Paul Haggis·Rupert Murdoch·Satan·Scientology·South Park·Sri Lanka·Super Best Friends·Theravada·Tom Cruise·Wickrema Weerasooria
Over at the Salt Lake Tribune, Peggy Fletcher Stack has written a nice article on the fine and sometimes indistinguishable line between religious inspiration and madness. Because Stack’s audience in Utah is predominantly Mormon, she perforce tap-dances around some delicate issues (i.e., Joseph Smith’s mental health). But this portion of the article particularly caught my [...]
Tags:churches·CS Lewis·cults·DSM-IV·ecstasy·Jesus·Jim Jones·Joseph Smith·mania·manic depression·mental illness·messiahs·Mormons·Peggy Fletcher Stack·prophets·psychopath·Ralph Hood·schism·schizophrenia·sects·shamans·The Line Between Inspiration and Insanity
Over at Live Science, the staff reports a recent study finding that people who left a “strict” religious group — i.e., Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons — tended to experience health declines after leaving the group. The key to this study is “strict,” as in a religious group that works hard and promulgates rules to regulate [...]
Tags:Christopher Scheitle·health effects·health impacts·health outcomes·Jehovah's Witnesses·Latter Day Saints·Mormons·religion
When attempting to determine whether something is “natural ” (vis-a-vis yesterday’s post on Catholicism and homosexuality) one good way of investigating the issue is to use the genealogical method. So far as I can tell, there are no hunter-gatherer or pre-Neolithic societies that had taboos against homosexuality. We can therefore trace the history of the [...]
Tags:Assyria·Assyrian Empire·Aztec sacrifice·Babylolian captivity·Catholicism·Christians·demographics·demography·early Christianity·Egyptian captivity·fertility·group size·Hebrews·homosexuality·India's sacred cow·Jewish diaspora·Jews·Judaism·Levant·Lost Tribes of Judah·marriage·Marvin Harris·Mesopotamia·Michael Harner·Mormons·natural law·persecution·pork eating proscription·procreation·prohibition against homosexuality·Ralph Tanner·ritual regulations·same-sex preference·sin of sodomy·slavery·sodomy·taboo·taboos·The Social Ecology of Religion·Vernon Reynolds·warfare
Yesterday the State of Utah executed Ronnie Lee Gardner using a firing squad. Why is Utah the only state that offers prisoners the option of a firing squad, which obviously results in lots of blood?
Although I have heard some rationalizations given by Utah officials that it is “faster and more humane” than other methods (which [...]
Tags:blood atonement·blood rituals·blood sacrifice·Brigham Young·execution·fertility·firing squad·Maya·Mayan religion·Mayans·Mormons·Ronnie Lee Gardner·Utah
Over at Slate, David Haglund wonders about the “great Mormon novel” and asks: “Where Is It?” I am not sure about greatness, but the first Mormon novel — The Book of Mormon — has already been written. One great novelist, Mark Twain, famously characterized it as “chloroform in print.” In an accompanying piece at Slate, [...]
Tags:Alan Wolfe·Big Love·David Haglund·Fawn Brodie·Immanuel Kant·Joseph Smith·LDS·Mark Twain·Mormons·Simon Critchley·The Book of Mormon·The Stone
